Reef in Review 2021

REEF IN REVIEW THE MAGAZINE OF THE AUSTRALIAN CORAL REEF SOCIETY

2021 #50

Deep sea exploration in 2020

Peeking into the depths of the GBR. pp 8-10 ACRS Research Awards

2020 award recipients share their fascinating research.

pp. 17-29 Marine art during Covid-19

Artistic expressions of reef enthusiasts.

pp. 48-53

The Australian Coral Reef Society acknowledges the Traditional Owners of coral reefs throughout Australia.We pay respect to their elders, past, present, and emerging.

Great Barrier Reef Underworld © Melanie Hava

Message from the President

The Australian Coral Reef Society supported the protection, conservation and science on Australia’s coral reefs since its inception. With the help of our members, we have significantly advanced our understanding of Australia’s coral reefs and brought conservation issues and solutions to the attention of governments and the general public. We have been busy keeping this work up over the last year, providing several submissions to government policy makers, reef managers and conservationists. We have advised the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority on their draft Interventions policy; commented to the Australian National Audit Office on the implementation of the Great Barrier Reef Foundation Partnership; reported on the export status of the East Coast Sea Cucumber Fishery for the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment; helped to revise Australian Scientific Diving and Diver training standards and called on the NSW Fisheries Scientific Committee (FSC) to protect Cauliflower soft coral (Dendronephthya australis) in New South Wales, which was subsequently listed as an Endangered Species under the Fisheries Management Act 1994, making significant steps toward its protection. The example illustrates how ACRS Submissions continue to make a meaningful difference to Australia’s coral reefs.

At a time when experts are routinely called upon to assist with political decision making through Senate Inquiry hearings, Royal Commissions and Expert Panels, it is important to remember the value of speaking out on behalf of coral reefs. To this end, we have also been keeping up the pressure to act on climate change, an issue which is fundamental to the health of Australia’s coral reefs. We have worked with the American Fisheries Society on the “Statement of World Aquatic Scientific Societies” and endorsed Zali Steggalli’s Climate Change Bill under the National Framework for Adaptation and Mitigation for better management of climate change.

As the Society enters its hundredth year, it continues to evolve with the times. We strive to speak with a voice that is inclusive, independent and informed about pressing contemporary environmental issues. We continue to benefit from a diverse Council membership, with females represented in several executive positions and a newly introduced Indigenous Council Officer position expected for next year. Inspired by covid-19, we have a digital identity that has grown through a flurry of online seminars and social media activity.

Look out for the exciting Hundred Year Anniversary activities we are planning for 2022. This is a time to acknowledge generations of council members who have worked tirelessly, driven by an enduring passion and curiosity for reefs, to maintain an impressive track record of coral reef science, communication and advocacy. A special centenary conference in Brisbane is being planned, including an exhibition and a commemorative book with contributions from our members.

This is a time of remarkable change. I have been inspired by the dedication of our Council members over the last year to keep coral reefs at the forefront of people’s minds. A Society such as ACRS has a unique opportunity to help and reshape the next generation of reef scientists. We are fortunate to have cultivated some of the best and brightest in the world to work on Australia’s reefs: what could be a better challenge than making it work well, so that we can continue to learn about, live alongside and look after the world’s natural wonders?

Sarah Hamylton

ACRS President

Left: Coral reef biodiversity.

© Ciemon Caballes

2015 ACRS Photo Competition

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Editorial foreword

Dear members,

This year’s magazine highlights the resilience of coral reef scientists during very trying times and showcases important work. The COVID pandemic has affected, and continues to affect people in many different ways. Our hearts go out to everyone struggling with the challenges this pandemic has thrown at us. On the science front, this may have meant cessation of fieldwork, project delays and isolation, particularly when it comes to conferences and information sharing. This year’s magazine celebrates how many of our community have adapted to allow research to continue, innovative shifts to virtual communication and people connecting with their artistic side during lockdown.

Throughout 2020 and into 2021 the Australian Coral Reef Society has increased its online presence with virtual seminars through the Reef Matters Seminar Series. We thank all of the wonderful presenters who shared their inspiring research and helped maintain connections amongst the coral reef community. Our social media presence has also increased, with a focus on ‘quirky science facts’ during Science Week. Given the engaging and simple nature of these posts, they were easy for teachers to use in classrooms and were a highlight for many children across Australia.

This is the first year in a while where the flavour of our articles isn’t focussing on the impact from a mass bleaching event. This summer has provided some relief for reefs, however we need many more like it to support recovery. Research highlights from last year’s ACRS research awards highlight the continuing impact of past disturbances on fish genetic diversity, the importance of seaweeds and their invertebrate community to food web dynamics, investigating new species of black coral and the resilience of crown-of-thorns starfish larvae to food scarcity. Last but not least, the inner workings of coral and algae – and the lung-function shared. The editorial team thanks award recipients for your amazing articles and wishes you all the best for the remainder of your studies.

We were privileged this year to partner with Indigenous artist Melanie Hava and showcase some of her art which epitomises her connection to sea country. We found many people turned to art during lockdown and were overwhelmed with the photos sent in following our call for marine art. From acrylic, to recycled posters and stained glass; the marine environment was honoured and showcased in many differed forms.

Our key research stations around Australia continue to function and have found a way to continue to support coral reef science in a safe and modified fashion. The ACRS thanks you for your dedication, hard work and continuous support to help us get into the field and study one of the most important environments’ on the planet.

We hope you enjoy the 2021 issue of the Reef in Review, the magazine of the Australian Coral Reef Society.

Jessica Hoey

Victor Huertas

Coulson Lantz

Left: Closeup view of a coral. © Matthew Nitschke

2013 ACRS Photo Competition

Brett Lewis

Kennedy Wolfe

Table of contents 5 Message from the President.

ACRS COUNCIL

2020-21

PRESIDENT Sarah Hamylton

University of Wollongong

6 Editorial foreword.

7 Table of contents.

VICE-PRESIDENT David Suggett University of Technology Sydney

8 No pandemic pause for multi-disciplinary reef exploration in 2020.

PAST PRESIDENT Anna Scott Southern Cross University

11 ACRS Submissions 12 Reef Matters seminar series 14 2020 ACRS Mid-Career Researcher Medal.

16 2020 ACRS Research Awards.

18 A bad starfish with a good egg: COTS egg energetics and larval development in naturally nutrient-poor tropical waters.

20 Happening Here in Heron: Checklist of black coral species, descriptions of undescribed species, and conservation of biodiversity. Oh my!

24 From weed to reef fish: Invertebrates living on seaweed power the middle of marine food webs 26 Let’s pull up their genes: are multiple climatic events affecting the genetic diversity of coral-dwelling fishes?

28 Endolithic algae: The coral holobiont has lungs.

31 2021 ACRS Photography competition 34 News from the field. Annual reports from Australian coral reef research stations.

42 Under the bunggu: The inspiration of sea country, by indigenous artist Melanie Hava 44 News from the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority.

SECRETARY Steph Gardner TREASURER Stephanie Duce

University of New South Wales

James Cook University

MEMBERSHIP MANAGER Samantha Goyen University of Technology Sydney MAGAZINE TEAM Jessica Hoey GBR Marine Park Authority Victor Huertas James Cook University Coulson Lantz University of New South Wales Brett Lewis Queensland University of Technology Kennedy Wolfe University of Queensland WEBSITE MANAGER Coulson Lantz University of New South Wales COUNCILLORS Graeme Cumming James Cook University Catheline Froehlich University of Wollongong Andrew Hoey James Cook University Gerard Ricardo Australian Institute of Marine Science Chris Roelfsema University of Queensland Carrie Sims Australian Institute of Marine Science Greg Torda James Cook University Selina Ward University of Queensland

46 Book review: “Letters and diaries: Expedition to the Great Barrier Reef, 1928-29” by Sidney Manton 48 Marine art during Covid-19 54 “Coral Reefs, Majestic Realms under the Sea”, new book release by Peter F. Sale 55 The 2020-21 ACRS Council

Cover: Mantis shrimp © Christopher Brunner

2019 ACRS Photo Competition

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers should be aware that this publication may contain images or names of people who have passed away.

No pandemic-pause for multi-disciplinary reef exploration in 2020

by Mardi McNeil

Queensland University of Technology

D

uring a challenging 2020, one international research vessel was able to continue working in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea Marine Parks collecting valuable marine science data despite the pandemic – the Schmidt Ocean Institute’s RV Falkor.

The 82 metre RV Falkor is an oceanographic research vessel kitted out with a suite of scientific instruments including state-of-the-art multibeam sonar systems for mapping the seafloor in high-resolution. These voyages mapped the upper continental slope, submarine canyons, drowned reef terraces and pinnacles along the entire outside edge of the Great Barrier Reef, as well as many of the reefs and seamounts on the Queensland Plateau. The survey outputs will greatly expand the knowledge base for the sustainable management of these unique features, and establish environmental baselines by building on previous mapping in the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea Marine Parks.

Above: New multi beam bathymetry mapping around the steeper planks of Osprey Reef on the Queensland Plateau. © Schmidt Ocean Institute

What was mapped?

oceanographers and robotics engineers from multiple institutions systematically mapped and characterised the mesophotic and deeper seascapes, sediments, habitats, and water column from the seafloor to surface.

Detailed underwater mapping occurred in some of the most remote and underexplored regions of tropical north-eastern Australia. Multi-disciplinary teams of geologists, ecologists, biologists, taxonomists,

Due to pandemic-related travel restrictions and border closures, the Falkor’s original 2020 schedule was highly disrupted. Several planned voyages were cancelled or postponed, which opened up ship-time for more locally-

Above: Scientists from James Cook University, Queensland University of Technology, the University of Sydney, and Geoscience Australia embarking on the ‘Seamounts, Canyons and Reefs of the Coral Sea’ voyage from Cairns. Scientists from the University of Tasmania, the Queensland Museum, the Museum of Tropical Queensland, and the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology participated remotely. © Dean Miller/Schmidt Ocean Institute

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Above: RV Falkor operating in the Great Barrier Reef. © Schmidt Ocean Institute

based science teams to conduct research in Queensland waters at unusually short-notice.

All of the dive videos can be watched from the Schmidt Ocean Institute YouTube channel.

First ever remotely operated research voyage

Voyage highlights

In testimony to the use of remote technology that has now become routine, scientists were able to complete the first completely ‘remote’ research voyage, where the RV Falkor sailed with no science party onboard. During Covid lockdown, Chief Scientist Dr. Robin Beaman from James Cook University ran the ‘Visioning the Coral Sea Marine Park’ voyage remotely from his home in Cairns, along with collaborating scientists who would meet daily with the ship’s crew and marine technicians via online platforms to plan and execute the day’s mapping and ROV dives. Since then, a number of voyages have adopted a hybrid model, with a smaller team of scientists on board the vessel and additional collaborators connecting remotely from onshore.

Some highlights from the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea include the first ever in-situ observation of the Ram’s Horn Squid (Spirula spirula), filmed during an ROV dive with Dr. Dhugal Lindsay from the Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC) joining the dive remotely via satellite.

Sampling at 4,500 m – how is it done?

One of main research tools on RV Falkor is the remotely operated vehicle ROV SuBastian. Capable of diving to a maximum depth of 4500 m. ROV SuBastian is fitted with a suite of sensors and sampling equipment capable of collecting everything from rocks and sediment cores, to delicate black corals, free-swimming jellies, and midwater plankton.

Each ROV dive is filmed in 4K and live-streamed in real time to Facebook and Youtube, with the scientists in the control room onboard RV Falkor providing live commentary and interacting with viewers via the streaming platform’s chat function. The ‘Visioning the Coral Sea Marine Park’, ‘Northern Depths of the Great Barrier Reef’ and ‘Seamounts, Canyons and Reefs of the Coral Sea’ expeditions provided the first ROV vision of some of the deepest and most remote underwater features off the continental slope and Queensland Plateau.

Above: First recorded observation of Spiral spirula in its natural habitat, at 860 m water depth off Wreck Bay, in the northern Great Barrier Reef. © Schmidt Ocean Institute.

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Spectacular underwater features were mapped including a 2000 m high ‘waterfall’ and plunge pool off Wreck Bay in the northern GBR. Headlines were made with the discovery of a new 500 m high detached reef with a living reef ecosystem at the top in 40 m water depth. The new detached reef adds to the seven other tall detached reefs in the area, which were all mapped in the late 1800s. As well as mapping the new reef in 3D detail, it was exciting to dive from the base to the top with ROV SuBastian and livestream the discovery to the world.

While the ‘Northern Depths of the Great Barrier Reef’ voyage targeted deeper seascapes and habitats on the continental slope and submarine canyons, the ‘Ice Age Geology of the Great Barrier Reef’ voyage targeted the 50 to 150 m depth range in the southern GBR and Capricorn-Bunker Group. The aim was to explore and map the drowned shorelines, rivers, deltas, and reefs of the southern GBR that formed during and since the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) when sea-level was around 120 m lower than today.

A rich array of samples and datasets including bathymetry, backscatter, conductivity, temperature, oxygen and current profiles, atmospheric and weather data, rocks and sediments, biota including hard, soft and black corals, sponges, jellies and plankton, and terabytes of high-resolution imagery data have been collected. Such a multi-disciplinary suite of datasets will provide new insights into the geological evolution, biodiversity distribution and key ecological features and processes of Australia’s marine frontier, as well as providing museum samples for taxonomic description and classification.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to the Captain, crew, engineers and marine technicians of RV Falkor, the pilots and technicians of ROV SuBastian, and all of the Schmidt Ocean Institute shoreside support team.

Thanks also to the many scientists and students, who participated on these research voyages and continue to advance our understanding of Australia’s marine estate. Research permits were supplied by the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and Parks Australia.

Top: ROV SuBastian being deployed; Titanium manipulator arms picking up a delicate discarded nautilus shell with black coral attached and collecting a rock sample; Bottom: RV Falkor control room during an ROV dive, being livestreamed to the world in real time. Photos 1-3: © Schmidt Ocean Institute; Photo 4: © Graeme McMahon/Schmidt Ocean Institute.

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My name is Mardi McNeil, and I have recently completed my PhD in marine geoscience at Queensland University of Technology (QUT), and was the 2018 ACRS Terry Walker Award Grant recipient. My research interest is in reef carbonate sedimentology, geomorphology and their associated processes. In the second half of a challenging 2020, I was fortunate to spend almost four months living and working aboard the RV Falkor over three research voyages along the outer Great Barrier Reef and Queensland Plateau.

This article showcases the voyages.

ACRS Submissions The ACRS calls for a reassessment of the East Coast sea cucumber fishery and reassessment of the Coral Sea fishery.

Based on current scientific consensus, the ACRS advises the Department of Agriculture, Water and the Environment to strongly reconsider harvesting the black teatfish, Holothuria whitmaei, and white teatfish, H. fuscogilva, for export. Both species of sea cucumber have been listed on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species for >6 years, and are now protected under CITES Appendix II. These listings reflect global declines in teatfish densities and should afford them full protection without export approval.

You can access the full submission here.

The ACRS comments on the Draft Policy on Great Barrier Reef interventions.

The ACRS acknowledges that the health of the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) is in decline and that interventions can potentially support and build resilience by maintaining key functions, habitats, and species of this ecosystem. Given the pace of environmental change and the rapid adoption of restoration-based interventions to maintain or improve the condition of other habitats (including reef connected systems such as mangroves and terrestrial catchments), we agree that an informed policy to help guide the need to explore –and potentially implement –what approaches can work at different scales is much needed and extremely timely.

You can access the full submission here.

© Kennedy Wolfe.

© Christopher Brunner.

Plating Acropora wedged in-between arborescent Acropora, providing shelter for the Chaetodon tricinctus, threeband butterflyfish and Chaetodon trifascialis, chevron butterflyfish, in the Lord Howe Island lagoon. Chaetodon tricinctus is endemic to Lord Howe Island, Norfolk Island, and Elizabeth and Middleton Reef. © Tess Moriarty.

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Reef Matters seminar series

T

he ACRS is a strong and long-standing community of coral reef researchers who have previously come together in near-yearly conferences. Due to travel restrictions and border closures over the past year, the ACRS Reef Matters Seminar Series was designed to keep our membership connected and informed in lieu of annual in-person meetings. The online seminars have occurred every 4–6 weeks and reflect our broad and multidisciplinary and international membership from students through to veterans. It is important that we stay connected as a community, and that we are given the opportunity to share our research, our views and our personalities.

If you are interested in participating in the Reef Matters series with a seminar please do not hesitate to get in touch with us.

The impact of diet on the growth of the juvenile crown-of-thorns starfish.

by Prof. Maria Byrne & Dione Deaker

As part of our Reef Matters Seminar Series, we are pleased to present the work of Professor Maria Byrne (2019 ACRS Established Researcher) and her student Dione Deaker (2020 ACRS Terry Walker awardee) from the University of Sydney. Their talks, titled “Filling in pieces of the crown-of-thorns puzzle” explores the fascinating life history and behaviour of the crown of thorns starfish and how these findings may help shape future management decisions for Australia’s coral reefs.

Watch Prof. Byrne and Ms. Deaker’s seminar here.

Baselines still shift, reefs still degrade, most of us don’t really care. Is there a future with coral reefs?

by Emeritus Prof. Peter Sale

With hindsight, it is clear that coral reefs were degrading globally even before reef ecology really got started in 1955. The causes were various and the trajectories differed from place to place. Mostly, reef scientists failed to notice the generality of decline until remarkably recently, while being well aware that reefs were being degraded in some locations, usually for obvious, local reasons. I discuss the attitudes and the paradigms that likely caused this failure to appreciate this human-caused, global deterioration in coral reef condition. I also look forward to a possible future which includes viable, high-diversity, productive, actively calcifying reefs, and to a much more likely future where reefs as we knew them in the 1960s have disappeared entirely. Reaching that desirable, but less likely, future will require substantial innovation in our understanding of the dynamics of complex ecological systems, and a recasting of conservation as assisting and steering rather than preserving or restoring coral reef systems. Achieving this future would be of real benefit to humanity and the planet. It could also bring opportunities for scientific research on coral reefs that are every bit as wonderful and rewarding as the great discoveries of past decades.

Watch Emeritus Prof. Sale’s seminar here.

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Dr. Anna Scott

Dr. Kennedy Wolfe

anna.scott@scu.edu.au

K.wolfe@uq.edu.au

Advancing our capabilities to map and monitor coral reefs - global information with local detail.

by Dr. Chris Roelfsema

We outline a new global coral reef mapping effort that combines detailed ecological information and knowledge with global scale satellite image data sets. This talk will demonstrate how the detailed spatial information supports coral reef research using examples for the Great Barrier Reef. The resulting maps provide information on reef geomorphic zonation and benthic cover types in a globally consistent approach, driven by local scale information. These products are intended to be the first version of a data set that is updated continually based on input from reef science and management communities globally. We present the approach used, which is based on a progression of applied research projects in the Great Barrier Reef. We show how Geomorphic Zonation, and Benthic Cover maps were/are created combining field data, satellite imagery, reef physical attributes (depth, slope, wave climate), and spatial modelling algorithms. Examples will be shown on how improved understanding of the geomorphic and benthic composition of individual reefs to support development, validation and refinement of water quality models, reef restoration plans, connectivity modelling and marine park planning.

Watch Dr. Roelfsema’s seminar here.

Coral health in an era of ecosystem change.

by Assoc. Prof. Tracy Ainsworth & Dr. Coulson Lantz

Coral bleaching has now impacted reefs worldwide. We have entered an era of nearannual bleaching events and an accumulation of environmental stressors driving change on coral reefs. Here we ask – how do we better understand, define and quantify coral health and coral reef ecosystem health in this era of ecosystem change.

Assoc. Prof. Tracy Ainsworth and Dr. Coulson Lantz present recent research documenting coral bleaching events of the past two years on reefs along Australia’s east coast reef habitats including the southern Great Barrier Reef, Lord Howe Island and Norfolk Island, and discuss the importance of understanding coral reef change, and the consequences to coral and reef health, across the reef ecosystems of Australia. Dr Lantz will also discuss a new home for coral reef health data which aligns with emerging trends in environmental accounting and how coral reef scientists around the world can help.

Watch Assoc. Prof. Ainsworth and Dr. Lantz seminars here.

Underwater, electronic, and armchair science.

by Dr. Charles Veron

Most of my life’s work has emanated from thousands of hours looking at corals. And then I’ve spent endless hours in front of a computer screen, as have we all. And, I’ll confess, I’ve spent even more time just thinking. What in all this can be called research or science? I put my case and leave it to you to consider, and decide, how these ways and means might have changed today

Watch Dr. Veron’s seminar here.

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2020 ACRS Mid-Career Researcher Medal

Prof. Andrew Hoey In 2020, the Australian Coral Reef Society awarded Professor Andrew Hoey from the Australian Research Council’s Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies with the ACRS Mid-Career Researcher Medal for his outstanding contribution to the science and management of Australian coral reefs.

Prof. Hoey has an outstanding track-record, with over 150 scientific papers on the ecology and conservation of coral reefs, and he is a leading authority on the functional ecology of herbivorous fishes on coral reefs.

Prof. Hoey was the lead editor of the scholarly book “The Biology of Parrotfishes”.

The judging committee recognised Prof. Hoey’s research impact, with his pioneering use of stationary underwater video cameras combined with algal assays to obtain direct measures of herbivory on coral reefs. Through this and other innovations, Prof. Hoey has contributed significantly to the fields of ecology and management of coral reefs of Australia and beyond. In recent years, his research has also provided new insights into how biological communities and ecosystem processes respond to shifts in habitat structure and degradation.

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Prof. Hoey was a core member of the Australian Coral Bleaching Taskforce that documented the effects of the 2016/17 bleaching episode on the Great Barrier Reef.

In addition to his academic accolades, Prof. Hoey has demonstrated a relentless dedication to supporting the Australian and international coral reef science communities. He has been an active member of the ACRS council for the past 11 years, and its president in 2016-17. He regularly provides expert advice to several government agencies and was an expert witness for the Senate Inquiry into “The Impacts of Climate Change on Marine Fisheries and Biodiversity”.

Prof. Hoey has earned an excellent reputation as a mentor of young scientists. He has advised 17 PhD candidates to completion receiving several commendations including the 2018 JCU Primary Advisor of the Year. He has also chaired the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies’ postdoctoral committee (2014-15), and since 2012 he is an active member of the CSIRO STEM Professionals-in-Schools program.

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Trails of read headlights reveal how busy spawning season is at the AIMS facilities.

© Christopher Brunner

2019 ACRS Photo Competition

2020 ACRS Research Awards Each year the ACRS supports the research of up to five students through provision of the ACRS Research Awards. The most outstanding proposals are awarded the Terry Walker Prize ($4,000) or the Danielle Simmons Prize ($4,000). Up to three additional ACRS Research Awards of $2,500 each are also awarded. Below we present you the recipients of the 2020 ACRS Research Awards.

In the following pages, you can read articles contributed by each awardee.

Terry Walker Prize DIONE DEAKER

A bad starfish with a good egg: crown-of-thorns starfish egg energetics and larval development in naturally nutrient poor tropical waters

Resilience to food scarcity and maternal provisioning in eggs may give COTS “the edge” compared to other tropical sea stars, contributing to their high success rates and the development of outbreaks.

Danielle Simmons Prize JEREMY HOROWITZ

Happening here in Heron: checklist of black coral species, descriptions of undescribed species, and conservation of biodiversity. Oh my!

To identify a coral species, both morphological and molecular evidences are needed because the way corals look can be deceiving. For example, there are black corals at 3 meters depth that look identical to black corals at 3,000 meters depth that actually belong to different families with hundreds of millions of years of separation between them!

ACRS Research Awards YI-YANG (ALEX) CHEN

From weed to reef fish: Invertebrates living on seaweed power the middle of marine food webs

Understanding and quantifying the energy flows between reef fishes and their prey can help us better predict fishery production and how seaweed meadows will respond to future environmental disturbances.

CATHELINE FROEHLICH

Let’s pull up their genes: Are multiple climatic events affecting the genetic diversity of coral-dwelling fishes?

After four back-to-back cyclones and bleaching events at Lizard Island, few goby species remained and most corals were empty, which is making us wonder: what happened to the genetic diversity of gobies?

FRANCESCO RICCI

Endolithic algae: the coral holobiont’s lungs

The distribution of oxygen produced by algae living inside the coral skeleton appears to be controlled by more than just light. We found that the oxygen measured inside the coral skeleton is very low compared to what would be expected.

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Terry Walker Prize

Crown-Of-Thorns Starfish | Egg energetics | Larval resilience

A bad starfish with a good egg:

Crown-of-thorns starfish egg energetics and larval development in naturally nutrient-poor tropical waters

By Dione Deaker

University of Sydney

C

rown-of-thorns starfish (COTS) naturally occur in coral reefs throughout the Indo-Pacific. They have a voracious appetite for coral and outbreaks of these sea stars are a major threat to coral reefs. Despite over 30 years of research into what drives the boombust population dynamics of COTS, there are several overlooked characteristics of their species biology that are likely to contribute to their success. My PhD sheds light on the fundamental traits of their early life history stages that may facilitate their survival including their ability to capitalise on human disturbances such as overfishing and terrestrial pollution that causes blooms of phytoplankton, food for

larvae. I have spent the first two years of my PhD studying the resilience of the juvenile stage to food scarcity and will now focus on the larval stage.

My project aims to provide insights into the development of larvae in the nutrient-poor conditions typical of coral reefs. I will rear larvae in the naturally low-food conditions COTS have evolved in using water sourced from One Tree Island lagoon. COTS also have very large eggs, an unexpected trait for a species with feeding larvae.

Increased energetic reserves may reduce the dependency of larvae on food. Resilience to food scarcity and maternal provisioning in eggs may

“Resilience to food scarcity and maternal provisioning in eggs may give COTS “the edge” compared to other tropical sea stars, contributing to their high success rates and the development of outbreaks.”

Above: The initial development of crown-of-thorns starfish larvae from an unfertilised egg to the 8-cell stage, blastula, gastrula with the formation of the stomach and bipinnaria when larvae start to feed. © Dione Deaker

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give COTS “the edge” compared to other tropical sea stars, contributing to their high success rates and the development of outbreaks. Just how tough are these soon-to-be coral eating machines?

With support from ACRS, I will rear larvae at the University of Sydney’s research station on the beautiful One Tree Island in the southern Great Barrier Reef. The island is home to a stable, non-outbreak population of crown-of-thorns starfish that I have been monitoring for the past 3 years and have been present in the lagoon for over 30 years. It is great fun snorkelling through the coral maze searching for clues as to their whereabouts, their trail of white feeding scars.

When I find a starfish, I extract a small piece of gonads through their armpit and place the starfish back in place on the reef where it will heal. I

then transport the gonads back to the lab on the station boat, and will culture the larvae in water sourced from the reef. I will also collect their eggs to analyse their energetic content at the Sydney Institute of Marine Science.

In January of 2020, I conducted a pilot study on One Tree Island and found that COTS larvae are able to develop and survive for over a month in the water collected from the lagoon. I am looking forward to raising larvae and analysing egg energetics in 2021. The outcome of this project is to determine the capacity of larvae to develop in nutrient-poor conditions and the potential to better understand the planktonic larval duration of COTS in ecologically relevant conditions.

This will have important implications for current models that attempt to map the dispersal of

COTS larvae following a spawning event and connectivity of populations.

Acknowledgements

My research would not be possible without funding from a number of grants including the Terry Walker Award from the Australian Coral Reef Society’s, the 2019 Lizard Island Research Grant for crown-ofthorns starfish research, the Ethyl Mary Read research grant from the Royal Zoological Society of NSW and the Postgraduate Research Support Scheme from the University of Sydney. I am extremely thankful for the support and guidance from my enthusiastic supervisor Prof. Maria Byrne and my friends and colleagues at the University of Sydney, the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and Lizard Island Research Station.

Above: Ms Deaker biopsying an adult crown-of-thorns starfish by making a small incision to extract their gonads.. © Dione Deaker.

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Danielle Simmons Prize

Antipatharians | Taxonomy | Phylogenetics

Happening Here in Heron:

Checklist of black coral species, descriptions of undescribed species, and conservation of biodiversity. Oh my!

By Jeremy Horowitz

James Cook University

B

lack corals have been on Earth for over 400 million years and they provide food and shelter for a wide range of fish and invertebrates. Like many coral groups, black coral populations are threatened, particularly in areas where they are harvested for the jewellery industry. However, little is known about the distributions of black coral species, which is required to conserve black coral populations.

Focusing mainly on the Great Barrier Reef (GBR) and Coral Sea, I collected and identified black coral species to update their ranges. I found that black coral diversity varied between reefs, but it was not clear what drives these variations.

Next, I wanted to understand what enables or restricts black corals from occurring on a given reef.

Answering this knowledge gap can help to build a model that predicts where different black coral species occur.

I was awarded the Australian Coral Reef Society Danielle Simmons award to describe black coral

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assemblages around Heron Island, an area where very few black coral species had been recorded. Teaming up with Project Phoenix, I documented and collected black corals on diverse habitats and compared the collection locations and coral morphologies to various abiotic features to understand what limits black corals from flourishing in the region.

I spent one week diving around Heron Island, which confirmed that black corals were rare compared to other parts of the GBR. Specimens collected were identified species based on morphological characteristics, including the colonies overall shape and size, polyp (feeding mouth) and tentacle shapes and sizes, and skeletal spine characteristics, which are small (<1 mm in height) features found all along the skeleton and can differ in shape and size between closely related species. A scanning electron microscope was needed to view the spine characteristics. I also identified the abiotic characteristics at each collection site including depth, habitat type, and current

strength. I compared the data from Heron to equivalent data collected from previous trips to other sites on the GBR to determine which abiotic characteristics are common where black coral diversities are high or low.

“Black coral diversity is low in Heron Island because it is a high energy environment, and generally, wave action can predict black coral biodiversity in shallow-water environments.”

Branched and unbranched species were found on the protected (leeward) side of the island, only unbranched species were found in habitats with moderate protection from the open ocean and no black

Above: Black coral from the Coral Sea. © Image courtesy of Schmidt Ocean Institute

corals were found on the exposed (windward) side of the island.

The more protection from oceanic swell and crashing waves on shallow-water environments, the greater the black coral diversity.

This can be explained by branched species having larger surface areas and a greater likelihood of being broken in high energy environments. The reefs of the Capricorn-Bunker group in the far southern GBR are all located on the outer-shelf, with little protection from the open ocean. In contrast, black coral diversity was much higher on more protected, mid-shelf reefs. Our findings suggest that black coral diversity is low in Heron Island because it is a high energy environment, and generally, wave action can predict black coral biodiversity in shallow-water environments.

Reef Studies, my JCU supervisors Dr. Tom Bridge, Dr. Peter Cowman, Prof. Julian Caley, and Prof. Bob Pressey. Lastly, none of this work would be possible without my best friend, wife, and turtle expert, Kristina Pahang.

Acknowledgements

This work would not be possible without the Australian Coral Reef Society, James Cook University, and the Centre of Excellence for Coral

Top right: Author Jeremy Horowitz imaging a whip-black coral. © Hanaka Mera

Bottom right: Divers Tom Bridge, Hanaka Mera, and Jeremy Horowitz heading out to sea to collect black corals. © Andrew Baird

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PhD students Chris Hemingson and Pauline Narvaez, and Dr. Renato Morais herd fish toward a barrier net.

© Victor Huertas

ACRS Research Award

Trophic flows | Epifauna | Ningaloo Reef

From weed to reef fish: Invertebrates living on seaweed power the middle of marine food webs

By Yi-Yang (Alex) Chen

Australian National University

R

eef fishes that feed on the invertebrates associated with seaweed (called epifaunal invertebrates) are key mid-food web consumers, facilitating the transfer of energy to higher levels of the food web. These food web links are a critical part of marine ecosystem functioning and coastal fishery production.

Quantifying existing flows between middle-order reef fish and their invertebrate prey will assist in better predicting fishery production in response to environmental disturbances including climate change. To date, there are few estimates of the dietary preferences, including prey selectivity of fishes which consume invertebrates (called invertivorous fishes). We also currently have little information on the amount of epifaunal invertebrates that are consumed by invertivorous fishes, and how this linkage may drive potential fluctuations in the stock of reef fishes that feed within seasonally-variable habitats such as seaweed meadows. My PhD aims to

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quantify the production of tropical seaweeds and their associated epifaunal invertebrates that reef fishes can access, and to apply models to predict the consequences for reef fish populations in response to temporal and spatial changes in seaweed meadows.

“Understanding and quantifying the energy flows between reef fishes and their prey can help us better predict fishery production and how seaweed meadows will respond to future environmental disturbances.”

My study region was Coral Bay located in Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia. The shallow waters in Coral Bay are dominated by corals and the canopy-forming seaweed, Sargassum. I collected samples of Sargassum and its associated epifauna from sites across the bay. Back at the laboratory I painstakingly sorted and counted all the epifauna that had been living on the Sargassum to estimate the daily production of these critical marine communities. I also conducted underwater visual surveys to record the foraging behaviour and biomass of reef fishes within the Sargassum meadows at these same sites. Finally, I set up a series of cages within my sites to exclude fishes from parts of the Sargassum meadow for a period of two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, I collected samples of Sargassum from full-cages and controlled cages. Moving forward, I will quantify the difference in epifaunal communities under fish predation pressure in order to calculate how much production

Above: Counting and identifying the epifaunal invertebrates extracted from seaweed canopies. Epifaunal invertebrates (dominated by gastropods and crustaceans) collected from Sargassum seaweeds. © Yi-Yang Chen

from these invertebrates is being consumed and converted into fish biomass at higher levels in the food web.

I found that the invertivorous reef fishes of Coral Bay demonstrate strong microhabitat preferences when foraging within Sargassum meadows and could be grouped into seaweed canopy foragers, opensubstrate foragers and generalists.

Actual levels of production by epifaunal communities within Sargassum meadows are strongly influenced by the canopy structure, and are sensitive to changes in canopy height and percent cover.

Importantly, these results suggest that die-backs of Sargassum associated with marine heatwave events will have strong impacts not just on availability of seaweeds for herbivores, but also on availability of invertebrates for invertivorous fishes. Future work will include quantification of the energy flows from epifaunal invertebrates to invertivorous fishes by comparing the overall level of epifaunal production within Sargassum

meadows exposed to predation with those where invertivores are excluded.

associated interruptions. I would also like to acknowledge the financial support of The Ministry of Education Taiwan, The Australian National University, the Australian Society for Fish Biology, and The Linnean Society of NSW. Finally, thanks to my supervisors, Dr. Rebecca Fox and Prof. Michael Jennions for their helpful suggestions and warm encouragement.

Above: Conducting underwater visual surveys to record seaweed meadow structure at my study site (Coral Bay, Ningaloo Marine Park, Western Australia). © Yi-Yang Chen

Acknowledgements

2020 has been an extremely tough year for all students and I really appreciate the funding support from the ACRS which has enabled me to continue with data collection and analysis that will form a substantive part of my PhD thesis. This support will allow me to complete my PhD to schedule, despite COVID-

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ACRS Research Award

Genetic diversity | Cyclones and heatwaves | Coral gobies

Let’s pull up their genes: are multiple climatic events affecting the genetic diversity of coral-dwelling fishes?

By Catheline Froehlich

University of Wollongong

I

n this new era where cyclones and mass bleaching events are happening consecutively, marine life has been experiencing population stressors unlike ever before. It is possible that some animals underwent such intense stress that only a few individuals within a population survived multiple disturbances. This is called a population bottleneck. Think of cheetahs and how their populations were reduced to the brink of extinction. When population bottlenecks occur, the DNA of the remaining survivors dictates the diversity of future generations. If survivors have very similar DNA, then inbreeding is likely prevalent and the populations may not recover. This means the remaining populations have low genetic diversity. However, if survivors have different and varied DNA, then populations should recover as genetic diversity is high.

What is happening to the genetic diversity of marine animals following consecutive disturbances?

I will shed some light to this question by studying coral-dwelling gobies, an adorable fish that lives

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exclusively in corals. Gobies protect corals from predators, algal growth, and stagnant water. Corals in return provide food, shelter, and breeding sites. Yet, after four back-to-back cyclones and bleaching events at Lizard Island, few goby species remained and most corals were empty, which is making us wonder: what happened to the genetic diversity of gobies? If we find that their diversity has changed, then we can predict which goby species are likely to recover, and which corals may suffer if their goby inhabitants disappear.

Above: If you look closely, you can see that we cut a tiny piece of tail. Luckily they grow it back quickly. That’s all we need to know their DNA secrets.

© Catheline Froehlich

For my goby project and with the ACRS research funding, I plan to unzip their genes and get to the heart of the question. We first collected fish tissue from different coral goby species before and after multiple disturbances at Lizard Island, QLD, by cutting off a small piece of their tail. Don’t worry, the fish grow it back quickly. Martin Hing collected tissue in 2014 before any disturbances, and then I returned to collect tissue of the same species in 2020 after 4 backto-back extreme disturbances (2 category four cyclones, and 2 long heatwaves that caused mass coral bleaching). Back at the lab, I recently extracted all the DNA, which basically just meant washing the tissue many times with different fancy soaps to get rid of unnecessary parts of the cells and only leave behind DNA. These samples are now at a different facility that will provide me with the genetic code of each DNA sample. I will then spend several months playing on the computer to analyse the DNA sequences from 2014 vs 2020 to figure out whether the catastrophic disturbances have affected the

Left: This adorable goby lives in a coral with algae growing on the edges.

That’s a lot of algae maintenance for the goby, especially since algae grows faster with warming temperatures. © Catheline Froehlich

Right: These gobies have excellent camo game and the only way to see them is to shine a flashlight in their corals. © Jemma Smith

populations of coral gobies on a genetic level.

“After four back-toback cyclones and bleaching events at Lizard Island, few goby species remained and most corals were empty, which is making us wonder: what happened to the genetic diversity of gobies?”

Right now, the work is still ongoing, so as the true scientist that I am, I can’t give anything away. However, from annual surveys I have been completing as a different part of my PhD, I can tell you that coral gobies

declined more than corals after the consecutive cyclones and prolonged heatwaves. Now, three years after the last disturbance, coral goby populations are still lower than before disturbances and several gobies are no longer found. I realize this sounds a bit depressing, but in reality these adorable little fish may be more resilient than we think!

Tune in later to find out what I have discovered about their genetic diversity.

Marian Wong, Dr. Selma Klanten, and Dr. Mark Dowton.

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to the Australian Coral Reef Society and the Centre for Sustainable Ecosystem Solutions at the University of Wollongong for funding the genetic analyses for my project. I thank the Zoltan Florian Marine Biology Fellowship as a part of the Lizard Island Doctoral Fellowship program and the Hermon Slade Foundation for funding the field trips to collect fish tissue. I am grateful for the support from my PhD supervisors Dr.

Above: The author is getting squeaky clean in the lab to extract the mitochondrial DNA, a.k.a. use fancy soaps to breakdown tissues and cell walls and leave behind just the DNA. © Renae Kirby

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ACRS Research Award

Boring algae | Oxygen evolution | Coral skeleton

Endolithic algae: The coral holobiont has lungs

By Francesco Ricci

The University of Melbourne

O

xygen is an essential molecule in coral reefs ecosystems that mediates the effect of many stressors such as temperature and acidification.

Algae that live inside the limestone skeleton of corals, called boring algae, produce oxygen through photosynthesis, which contributes to the total oxygen balance of coral reefs. The boring algae oxygen input into the reef's ecosystem is a biological process that is not yet fully understood and this process may be controlled by more than just light availability. The aim of this project

is to understand the factors which control the amount of oxygen produced by these boring algae that have chosen the inside of a coral skeleton as their habitat.

We are using two methods to address our question. The first method is chemical imaging (Figure 1), which allows us to quantify the oxygen produced by the algae residing inside the coral colony in a natural environment.

The coral is cut into two halves (Figure 2), a layer of nano-sensors that bind to oxygen molecules is spread onto the cut side of the

coral, and by using a modified digital camera we can visualize the fluctuations in oxygen molecules (Figure 3). The second method relies on a metabolic chamber (Figure 4), which is used to quantify the oxygen produced in limestone boring algae under different light intensities. This method relies on patches coated with nano-sensors that bind to oxygen, and connected via optic fibres to a reading system.

The project preliminary results show that the oxygen produced by the algae living inside the coral

Figure 1: Chemical imaging setup, showing: (A) the modified DSLR camera used to acquire the image, (B) the LED excitation light, (C) tank containing the sectioned coral and (black arrow) the oxygen nano-sensor layer, (D) light source used to mimic sunlight in the lab experiment, and (E) the computer used to control the setup. © Francesco Ricci

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“The distribution of oxygen produced by algae living inside the coral skeleton appears to be controlled by more than just light” skeleton can be irregular. Some samples do not consistently respond to light, lacking oxygen production when illuminated. We found that the oxygen measured inside the coral skeleton is very low compared to what would be expected. A number of reasons could determine such a low oxygen presence, e.g. high microbial respiration or low presence of carbon to be fixed.

Although we have also observed that the algae increase oxygen production in response to increasing light intensity, this oxygen is not uniformly distributed inside the coral colony.

Interestingly, the oxygen shows

peaks in correspondence to the green layer of the coral skeleton, which is usually given by the presence of algae.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the Australian Coral Reefs Society, and the Ecological Society of Australia for providing the funding necessary for the field trip of this study. My supervisors, Associate Professor Heroen Verbruggen, Professor Linda Blackall and Professor Michael Kuhl are also a big and essential part of this project, their constant mentoring and advice are at the base of its success. And I would also like to thank my colleagues Alexander Fordyce, Marisa Pasella and Alison Waskowicz, for helping me setting up the experiment, conducting it and analyzing the data.

Figure 2: Alexander Fordyce (left) and Francesco Ricci (right) during the coral cutting. © Francesco Ricci

Figure 4: Metabolic chamber used to measure oxygen production of algae growing inside limestone chips.

The yellow vials containing the algae are kept in a water bath during the experiment to keep the temperature constant. © Francesco Ricci

Figure 3: (A) Cross-section of Porites lutea cut along its vertical axis. (B) Imaging of the O2 gradient within the skeleton shown in (A) and graph values taken along the dotted line.

The cut surface of the skeleton was illuminated with 50.3 PAR for 240 minutes.

Calibration bar in image B represents O2% on air saturation. © Francesco Ricci

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Stonefish at Steve’s Bommie, Great Barrier Reef.

© Matt Curnock

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2021 ACRS PHOTO COMPETITION OVERALL Winner

Valerio Tettamanti

Once again, the ACRS Photography Competition received a broad array of stunning images of reef life captured by the talented ACRS members across Australia. The judging panel had the difficult task of picking the best photographs among . Here, we present you the winners of each category.

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SCIENCE IN ACTION Winner Augustine Crosbie

DIVERSITY Winner John Thorogood

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MACRO Winner John Magee

Honorable mention

Maarten DeBrauwer

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Dotted around the coast are our Research Stations.

These ‘research refugia’ are the platforms for Australian coral reef science.

Their resources, facilities, and amazing personnel enable our understanding of coral reef systems and the beauty they represent.

In the following pages you can learn about the coral reef research conducted at these stations in 2019 and keep up to date with their latest news.

Divers inspect a coral reef.

© Alex Tyrrell/Coral Reef Image Bank

Lizard Island Research Station

By Dr. Anne Hoggett and Dr. Lyle Vail

Directors, Lizard Island Research Station (Australian Museum)

The pandemic has affected the work of LIRS enormously. The station closed on 24 March 2020 when the last researchers left. Many were internationals who had been scrambling to find a way back home as borders were closing and flight options were in flux. Travel into Cape York (including Lizard Island) was banned up to July and LIRS remained closed until 16 August.

The four LIRS staff remained on site during the lockdown in what must be one of the best places on the planet to be isolated. We were able to get a lot of things done that had been on the to-do list for years, both administrative and maintenance.

After nearly five months, we were more than ready to welcome back the few researchers who were able to get to LIRS. For the remainder of the year, occupancy was about a third of normal. Clearly, the work plans of

many researchers have been thwarted by their inability to get into the field.

For the first time since the program’s inception in 1982, no Lizard Island fellowships or grants were awarded in 2020. The previous year, 11 had been awarded to start in 2020 but five of them have not been able to begin field work yet. These have all been extended but it wasn’t sensible to add more to start in 2021 when the outlook is so uncertain.

On a happier note, coral recovery in this area over the past year has been nothing short of amazing. Since the devastation caused by cyclones and bleaching over four consecutive summers (2014-2017), critical mass has been achieved by growth of small corals that survived the disturbances and others that have recruited since.

The reef now looks fabulous in some places. Others are well on the way and will also look great by this time next year as long as there are no major disturbances in early 2021.

There was a close call in early 2020.

Coral bleaching began in midFebruary and there was some mortality by mid-March but a weather change associated with Cyclone Grace cooled things down before much damage was done. The beginning of widespread bleaching also became apparent in early January 2021, five weeks before the corresponding stage of the devastating event in 2016.

However, by the time of writing (21 Jan 2021), the weather pattern had changed and cooled the water enough to remove the immediate stress - but there are still at least ten potentially dangerous weeks to come.

Above: LIRS Directors Dr. Anne Hoggett and Dr. Lyle Vail. © Alex Vail;

Left: AIMS researchers at LIRS © Lyle Vail

Below: Back to normal, Dec 2020. © Anne Hoggett

Maintenance staff Marianne Dwyer and John Williamson left LIRS in October after 5.5 years and we thank them for their contributions. We are currently seeking people for the ongoing roles. One must be a Queensland-licenced electrician with a wide range of other applicable skills.

The other must be an energetic cleaner.

At least 91 new publications were added to the LIRS contributions list during 2020, bringing the total to at least 2470.

Lizard Island Field Guide (lifg.australianmuseum.net.au) increased by 246 species, bringing the total to 3042 with photographs and other information.

Dr Anne Hoggett & Dr Lyle Vail

Directors, LIRS

+61 (0)7 4060-3977

lizard@australian.museum

www.australianmuseum.net.au/LizardIsland-Research-Station

Lizard Island

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Above: Aerial view of the Orpheus Island Research Station. © Rebecca Tite

Orpheus Island Research Station

By Rebecca Tite and Rhys Cornish

James Cook University

2020 was an interesting year for OIRS as we are sure it was for all research facilities and universities. OIRS started off the year strong and were looking forward to hosting new and returning researchers. As with other facilities COVID-19 forced the station into maintenance mode for a period of time with only 2 staff on site and no clients.

Thanks to all of our local Queensland researchers and students the station was able to start up again smoothly.

Dr Greg Torda continued his multiyear project assessing the dynamics of coral populations on Pelorus Reef.

Recovery monitoring was continued with benthic surveys and developing a digital elevation model of Pelorus using a sonar and GIS.

The Manbarra Traditional Owners and their networks utilized OIRS facilities while visiting Greater Palm Island and Orpheus Island to discuss management framework strategies around the Great Palm Island Group and the surrounding sea country with scientists and policy makers.

Research Project Summaries

Tangaroa Blue returned with 18 volunteers to Orpheus Island to complete their annual trip to help combat marine debris on and around Orpheus Island.

Milparanga Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Leadership Program brought industry leaders from all over Australia to Orpheus Island to enhance leadership skills, to create and lead powerful conversations to broaden perspectives and act together.

The Reef Function Hub led by Professor David Bellwood visited using multiple methods such as reef current meters, sediment traps, turf pods and GoPro footage to examine benthic pelagic coupling in reefs with high sediment load.

Morris Family Trust Student Grant Scholarship Winners 2020

Augustine Crosbie – Population biology and hybridization of Acropora

Orpheus Island

Eoghan Aston – Quantifying and predicting coral colony structure complexity and fish habitat provisioning: Implications of changing coral communities.

Shiori Kanno – Ecological functions of mangroves for elasmobranchs.

Jeremy Horowitz - Diversity of black corals from Orpheus Island, Australia

ADAS Courses

OIRS hosted Commercial Dive Academy courses this year to conduct ADAS Part 1R training for 48 JCU staff and students as well as AIMS employees. This is a full-time 2-week diver training course that teaches safe work practices for our staff and students while conducting their research.

Summary

Our 2020 Team at OIRS saw some new faces with full-time staff members Rhys Cornish (Diving) and Heath Kiernan (Maintenance) joining the team and Bec Forster as a casual staff member. OIRS are ever improving our facilities and services. Moving into 2021 we have lots to look forward to including a new barge to replace Pioneer I, Masters Students joining the OIRS team through our JCU Work Integrated Learning Program and works to start on new station infrastructure. Look forward to seeing you in 2021.

www.jcu.edu.au/orpheus-island

Orpheus Island Research Station

@JCUOIRS

@JCU_OIRS

Above: Manbarra Traditional Owners.

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One Tree Island Research Station

By Heinrich Breuer and Ruby Holmes

Managers,

One Tree Island Research Station

Although visits to One Tree Island Research Station (OTIRS) were limited due to Covid-19, the station still hosted several researcher groups.

We used 2020 as an opportunity to tackle bigger maintenance jobs, including renovations to the wet lab and dry lab rooms.

The year started with a visit from long-term OTIRS visitor, Professor Gabi Gerlach. Her team from the University of Oldenburg collaborated with Professor Eric Warrant to conduct experiments studying juvenile fish responses to the Milky Way during orientation. Gabi was joined by James Cook University (JCU) Professor Mike Kingsford and

his PhD student, Kynan HartogBurnett. The JCU team continued their research on the spatial and genetic ecology of small bait fishes.

Gabi and Mike have been visiting OTIRS and collaborating on projects here at OTIRS for over 15 years.

In February, OTIRS hosted Dr. Emily Howells, Professor Andy Davis, and Dr. Sebastian Schmidt-Roach. They tagged and collected small tissue samples of over 100 Platygyra daedalea colonies within the lagoon.

This work aims to identify genetic adaptations explaining different thermal stress tolerances of corals within and among populations across the Indian and Pacific Ocean basins.

Although the team were unable to return after a bleaching event, the Station Managers were able to survey and send photos of the tagged corals to assist them in gauging the effects on the colonies.

Although the year started out slow, it ended with a big bang as Dr. Peter Harrison from Southern Cross University (SCU) used both OTIRS

and Heron Island Research Station as a base for their coral larval restoration project. His team included Grant and Kerry Cameron, Dr. Daniele Cagnazzi, Anna Christie, and Leigha Aitken. After a mass coral spawning event, the SCU team placed eggs and sperms into enclosed ‘nurseries’ in three lagoon sites. The reared larvae were then released onto specific areas of the reef. The team worked tirelessly to make sure the processes ran smoothly, and the project was a success. Dr. Harrison’s coral larval restoration project is aimed at ensuring more naturally produced larvae survive to adulthood by repairing the reproductive life cycles of corals and by re-establishing breeding populations on damaged reefs.

With large repairs to OTIRS completed and a new look to the dry lab and wet lab rooms, the station is looking forward to hosting many more researchers in 2021!

Top left: Grant Cameron from Southern Cross University releases coral egg and sperm into the square coral larval rearing pool; Top right: Professor Peter Harrison and his team’s octagon coral larval rearing pool taken from the air. © Daniele Cagnazzi.

One Tree Island

Above: From left to right: Andreas Bally, Mark O’Callaghan, Franziska Curdt, Kynan Hartog-Burnett, Gabi Gerlach, Lisa Spiecker and Mike Kingsford with Station Managers, Ruby Holmes and Heinrich Breuer.

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Heron Island Research Station

during an ENSO neutral phase. Although we are awaiting survey results, Heron appears to have suffered only relatively low mortality rates reef-wide.

By Kirsten Slemint and Dr. Stuart Kininmonth

Community Engagement

Administrator (KS) and Research Station Manager (SK),

Heron Island Research Station

In a pattern that echoed across the globe, the coronavirus pandemic saw the Heron Island Research Station (HIRS) close its doors from March to August 2020.

Despite halting research and education activities throughout this period, the Station remained active in responding to the challenges it faced. Having reopened its doors, and with a rejuvenated staff and management team, the HIRS is looking forward to an innovative, prosperous and exciting year in 2021.

2019/2020 Bleaching Event

The Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority confirmed a mass bleaching event was occurring in March 2020. This announcement came just as the Station closed its doors in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

While the Southern Great Barrier Reef suffered little to no bleaching in the 2016 and 2017 mass bleaching events, during the 2020 event Heron Island experienced moderate to severe bleaching. The timing of the Station closure was particularly devastating to research groups who were preparing to analyse its impact at HIRS.

Heron Island witnessed some of its highest water temperatures in recent years, and peculiarly this event occurred

Heron Island

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In November, the Station was home to the many researchers, presenters and crew behind the ambitious ‘ABC Reef Live’ program. The two-part live TV event allowed audiences to experience and better understand one of the world’s greatest spectacles – mass coral spawning. Leading the research team, Professor Peter Harrison is the founding Director of the Marine Ecology Research Centre and his coral larvae restoration program (known as Coral IVF) is backed by the Great Barrier Reef Foundation.

Queensland University of Technology’s Prof. Matt Dunababin joined Professor Harrison and took the opportunity to trial ‘LarvalBot’. The marine robot aims to increase the effective delivery of coral larvae by targeting their release toward areas of dead or damaged reef systems.

Above: A freediver snorkels on the reefs around Heron Island. © Cedric Van Den Berg

Citizen Science

In September, we were excited to welcome CoralWatch back to the Station. Their four-day professional development workshop focussed on coral biology, reef health and threats, coral bleaching, citizen science, and the importance of reef conservation. Teachers spent time on the reef learning how to collect and interpret CoralWatch data, investigate zooxanthellae and identify coral genus.

In November, Reef Check Australia was back to conduct their annual reef survey. A total of 17 underwater impact surveys were conducted, along with an island-wide beach clean-up. As in previous years, the team found low levels of marine debris, but discarded research equipment and microplastics were identified. Reef Check worked with Station staff to implement steps for the removal of this debris.

New Staff

The Station has welcomed several new staff this year. With a history at Heron Island having worked with the Coral Reef Ecosystem Lab (CRE), Adriana Campili has joined our Scientific team bringing with her a wealth of knowledge and experience in Marine Research, as well as Boating and Diving. Kirsten Slemint joined us as an Administration and Scientific Officer. She has a range of experience including Admin, Finance, Communication, Science, and Film.

Working on remote sites and around marine research is nothing new for our Client Facility Coordinator, Dave Kelly, who joins us to ensure the high standard of the Station’s facilities. Last but not least, Dr Stuart Kininmonth joins the Station as the new Research Station Manager. Dr Kininmonth has an extensive history in marine and ecological research, with over 20 years of field experience leading teams throughout the Great Barrier Reef and Coral Sea.

A word from the new Station Manager

A job at Heron Island Research Station?

The oldest, largest and most famous research station, on the world’s largest coral reef? This was not an opportunity to miss! I am honoured to work with a most wonderful team that works tirelessly to help researchers and students from around the world as they engage in the magnificent Capricorn Bunker coral reefs.

As a coral reef ecologist, I envisaged that my delight at being able to walk into the active coral reefs only meters away might dominate my time as Station Manager.

Much to my surprise, I have found the terrestrial aspects equally captivating. The turtles laying and hatching, the terns nesting and feeding and the night calls and flight patterns of the shearwaters have provided endless entertainment.

My goal, however, is to ensure that science activities can be fully supported by the station and that the profile of Heron Island is once again dominant in coral reef science. The University of Queensland has recognised the importance of the station within its marine programs, and this needs to be replicated across to the rest of Australia. Combined with a cooperative framework with the other Pacific marine research stations, I expect we will have a high impact on the marine science field.

As restrictions start to ease, my team and I hope it won’t be long before we see you back on Heron Island.

Moreton Bay Research Station

By Kevin Townsend

Research Station Manager,

Moreton Bay Research Station

The beginning of 2020 was shaping up to be a very busy year for research and teaching at Moreton Bay Research Station (MBRS). Unfortunately, COVID restrictions began during March and the station was placed into caretaker mode, reducing the station’s capabilities.

Following the easing of restrictions in August we adapted to the new COVID operational environment. MBRS staff provided and enabled a diverse range of teaching and research program support with online teaching videos, collection of animals and data for researchers, in addition to ongoing operational projects.

Above: Sorting plankton. © Elisa Girola

Academic Director of MBRS, Assoc. Prof.

Michael Noad, developed strategic plans, grant proposals, collaboration programs with the Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation (QYAC), and attracted researchers and teaching groups to the station.

New equipment was purchased in late 2019 and early 2020 to expand our research and teaching capacity. This included a fast electric vehicle charging station, a refrigerated microcentrifuge, Biosafety cabinet, trailer, and new engines for the station vessels. At the beginning of 2020 we began a new MBRS website and the new site was launched in December.

MBRS received a UQ Research Facilities Infrastructure Grant for the deployment of a water sensory hub network in Moreton Bay, and work continued in 2020 with the Science Workshops building the water quality and environmental monitoring systems and large buoys on which they are to be deployed. This is an exciting research project that will provide permanent infrastructure in Moreton Bay for mounting sampling and monitoring equipment for future research projects and collaborations. A website was also developed to provide real time monitoring, and maintenance programs will regularly service equipment.

Research projects in 2020 included pigmy squid and manta shrimp research with Prof. Justin Marshall and Dr. Wen Sung Chung, humpback whale research with the Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Lab led by Dr. Rebecca Dunlop and A/Prof Michael

Noad based at MBRS, Prof. Andrew Fairbairn worked with QYAC on archaeological sites around Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island), and Clarisse Louvard studying marine trematodes.

MBRS also hosted several high schools in educational and engaging science camps in early 2020 and a few groups at the end of 2020. We would like to thank our tutors for their hard work, and we can’t wait to welcome our teaching groups in 2021.

Sadly, due to COVID restrictions, important cultural celebrations like NAIDOC week and the Quandamooka Festival, and the MBRS Open Day were cancelled in 2020. We hope circumstances improve in 2021 to continue with our community outreach programs, and we look forward to inviting the community to the 2021 MBRS Open Day.

Lastly, a big thank you to the many researchers, teachers and all the wonderful students who have spent time at the station in this difficult year. We have missed the international researchers and teaching groups who unfortunately had to cancel their visits. We hope everyone is well and healthy and we are looking forward to seeing you again soon.

Moreton Bay

Top: Breaching humpback whale. © Dana Cusano; Above: CoralWatch workshop. © Karen Johnson

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Kimberley Marine Research Station

By KMRS staff,

Kimberley Marine Research Station

In spite of our relative remoteness, The Kimberley Marine Research Station (KMRS) still experienced significant effects from the COVID-19 global pandemic in 2020. Research projects and pearling activities at the station continued through the year despite the turbulent times thanks to the flexible and optimistic nature of our staff.

Pearl Oysters

We are continuing to investigate the genetic drivers for survivorship during outbreaks of Juvenile Pearl Oyster Mortality Syndrome (JPOMS); a syndrome capable of inducing mortality rates greater than 90% across young hatchery stock on Australian pearl farms. Routine sampling of specimens before, during and after outbreaks are analysed with the aim of uncovering any genetic traits that may be driving survivorship during these events.

In 2018, genome sequenced broodstock was spawned, and the spat deployed onto our various farm sites within Cygnet Bay. 2020 saw the first seeding operations of these specimens - an exciting step for our pearl oyster research and development. We are collecting a variety of data on this group of oysters to keep track of growth and survival rates and determine which

Kimberley Marine Research Station

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Above: Mature Saccostrea (rock oysters) on a rocky intertidal area in Cygnet Bay.

farming techniques and genome sequences are favourable for pearl development.

Corals

The intertidal range in the Kimberley is one of the largest in the world.

During the spring tides it can vary up to 11m. This results in a unique habitat in which many different species that seem to be resilient to the massive range of environmental pressures thrive. In some coral pools the water temperature can increase to as much as 50 °C in summer months.

Following a bleaching event of local corals in 2016, KMRS set up permanent transects on intertidal coral populations designed to record and monitor any further bleaching events and track any other changes in their general health. Photo data from along the transects is analysed on a monthly basis and added to the larger ongoing data set.

A second coral project continues to track the recruitment of coral larvae through the Cygnet Bay area using settlement tiles on frames that are placed in different locations and depths throughout the bay. A temperature logger is deployed with each coral recruitment frame in order track the length and intensity of any marine heatwaves that occur and check for correlations between water temperature and bleaching events or lower than average recruitment numbers. In 2020, the largest number of new coral recruits was recorded in November.

Rock Oysters

2020 saw the continued monitoring of rock oyster recruitment in Cygnet Bay. This project looks at spat recruitment and survival rates of Saccostrea spp. in three locations along the Cygnet Bay beach flats.

Recruitment tiles are analysed on a monthly basis and counts are added to our growing dataset, which aims to provide baseline data for marine researchers and future research projects. In 2020, the highest spat recruitment was recorded at the Western site, which was selected due to its proximity to high density populations of mature Saccostrea. It is hoped that there may be a potential in the future for commercial growth of the animals as a food source for the local area.

www.kmrs.com.au

Kimberley Marine Research Station

@KMRS2009

@kimberleymarineresearchstation

Above: Examining the impacts of a boat ramp on the intertidal platforms in Coral Bay during Murdoch University’s Tropical Marine Biology field course.

Coral Bay Research Station

By Prof. Mike van Keulen,

Director, Coral Bay Research Station

While 2020 was an unusual year, with limited interstate travel, we were fortunate to have a number of local users able to work at Murdoch University’s Coral Bay Research Station. Ningaloo has increasingly been the subject of wildlife and wilderness documentary productions, and the research station provides a useful base of operations for these projects; a local underwater video team stayed at the research station for a substantial portion of the lock-down period, which supplemented our reduced visitor numbers. We also hosted a number of research and monitoring teams from government

agencies, as well as a few local student projects.

The WA hard-border reduced interstate visitor numbers but local tourism boomed, and our Project Manta database continued to expand.

One of our local tourists who visited the station was Murdoch Vice Chancellor, Eeva Leinonen, who dropped by during a holiday to northwestern WA. We were pleased to show her the research station’s facilities and discussed support by the University for future development and new facilities. We anticipate a refurbishment of the main accommodation facility and installation of a fume hood in the dry lab in the coming year.

Coral Bay Research Station Above: Murdoch University’s Vice Chancellor Eeva Leinonen visiting the Coral Bay Research Station with Station Director Mike van Keulen (left) and Station Manager Frazer McGregor (right).

Murdoch ran its 13th annual Tropical Marine Biology field course in July 2020 (run annually between semesters), this year only with domestic students. The course provides students with advanced marine ecology training, as well as introducing them to the wonders of Ningaloo Reef on a 10-day field trip to

Above: The team of the 13th annual Tropical Marine Biology field course.

Coral Bay. The unit is at third year undergraduate level and we welcome undergraduate students with secondyear biology or ecology experience.

2021 is looking like it will be back to being busy, with resumption of several long-standing research projects, including Reef Life Survey and Earthwatch expeditions, as well as more documentary film crews, working on a major new tv production on Ningaloo Reef. Several new student projects are starting, including studies on giant clams and the wildlife tourism industry in Coral Bay.

The station has available accommodation for small groups, basic office and laboratory facilities, including a small library, three boats and two 4WD Hilux vehicles. Follow our news and activities on Facebook: Coral Bay Research Station and Project Manta WA.

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Under the bunggu: The inspiration of sea country

by Melanie Hava

Mamu Aboriginal artist Melanie Hava is a Mamu Aboriginal artist living in Cairns. Her mother is from the Dugul-barra and Warii-barra family groups who are traditional custodians of the Johnstone River catchment, her father is Austrian. As a deaf mother of three children, she finds time in her very busy life to take artistic inspiration from the Great Barrier Reef.

I

was born in Mount Isa, Queensland, to a father from the oldest city Austria, Enns (Upper Austria) and a mother who is from one of the oldest cultures in the world, Aboriginal people of Australia, in particular from the Mamu People on North Queensland’s tropical coast. I identify through my mother’s line as a Mamu Aboriginal woman, from the Dryribal speaking Dugul-barra and Wariibarra family groups of the Johnstone River catchment in the Wet Tropics of Far North Queensland. This area sits in the middle of the Great Barrier Reef, an hour south of Cairns with fifty kilometre stretch of adjoining sea country.

Reef and Rainforest country are important source of inspiration for me.

Mamu people are one of about 70 Aboriginal groups on the east Australian coast and one of 20 Rainforest Aboriginal groups whose freshwater country immediately adjoins the Reef sea country. For Rainforest Aboriginal people, our traditional estates are now internationally recognised through the Wet Tropics of Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef both being listed as World Heritage Areas for their universal values. The Aboriginal cultural stories of this country are an important part of the World Heritage value of this area and have been recognised as part of its outstanding universal value.

While the more recent generations of our family associate more with the Millaa Millaa and the Palmerstone Highway along the North Johnstone River catchment, the family stories that have been passed from generation to generation show that our ancestors travelled much around Mamu country, down to the coast and sea and according to the changes in the seasons for food. Our freshwaters flow out to

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the sea waters and come back to the land as it rains, so we are all connected. Under the Traditional Use of Marine Resources Agreement (TUMRA), one clan of the Mamu people, work together to manage our sea country that stretches to the outer edges of the Great Barrier Reef and covers many reefs between the land and the open ocean.

Here, they are focussing on increasing the numbers of turtle and dugongs for a sustainable future.

Growing up in Tully we used to go down to Mission Beach every Saturday for fish and chips. Here I discovered a love for the mysteries of the reef through books and of course, when Finding Nemo came out, I was instantly inspired and fell in love with the beautiful visuals of the reef. The first time I realised that I could paint the reef was when I moved to Cairns and took my first trip out to Green Island and saw firsthand the beautiful reef and fishes from the glass bottom boat. On the surface the Great Barrier Reef sea country looks like beautiful plain water, but underneath the “bunggu“ (waves), a flurry of activity and sea life abounds.

The rest was left to my imagination and my paintbrush.

Given this history, as an Aboriginal woman, all my initiatives and targets are related to highlighting our culture and heritage. My work portrays my environmental values and I appreciate that without our beautiful reef and rainforest, we will not exist. My sustainability concepts are to live a more eco-friendly lifestyle, use my voice to promote actions, consume less and use as much environmentally friendly product as possible in my art. I am here for the long haul. I now live in the beautiful and inspiring city of Cairns in Far North Queensland, where I feel close to the spirit of rainforest and reef animals of my mother's country.

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News from the

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority Launch of the ‘Reef Resilience’ vessel

A new 24-metre open-ocean patrol vessel will help deliver marine park compliance, island management and protection activities across the Reef. The Reef Resilience was launched in Gladstone in May 2021 and represents an important milestone for the Reef Joint Field Management Program, co-managed by the Authority and the Queensland Parks and Wildlife Service.

The new vessel complements the Reef Ranger, which operates in the northern part of the Marine Park, but with enhanced capabilities and range. With 16 berths, three support tenders and a larger, rigid hull inflatable boat, this floating ranger base will help us deliver compliance and enforcement activities.

The Reef Resilience will also substantially increase capacity for field activities and will support park rangers, researchers, and Traditional Owners to better undertake field work aimed at improving understanding of the Reef and protect its values.

Top: Federal Minister for the Environment Hon Sussan Ley and Queensland’s Minister for the Environment and the Great Barrier Reef Hon Meaghan Scanlon at the launch of the Reef Resilience in Gladstone, QLD; RIght: The Reef Resilience, a new state-of-the-art 24metre vessel. © Victor Huertas /Queensland Parks & Wildlife Service (QPWS).

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#LovetheReef

New Cultural Etiquette Videos

The Reef Joint Field Management Program has recently released a second video aimed at informing visitors on cultural etiquette and working respectfully on Country.

The Kuuku Ya’u cultural etiquette video follows an inaugural video produced in combination with Cape Melville, Flinders and Howick Island Aboriginal Corporation in 2020. The work is part of our ongoing commitment to strengthen relationships with Traditional Owners in the World Heritage Area, and recognises the seeking of free, prior and informed, consent is an important part of working in and adjacent to the Reef.

This video should be viewed before visiting Piper Islands National Park (Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal Land CYPAL), Wuthara (formally Forbes) Island National Park (CYPAL), Mitirinchi (formally Quoin) Island National Park (CYPAL) and Ma’alpiku (formally Restoration) Island National Park (CYPAL).

The videos provide an opportunity for Traditional Owners to share their stories, personal insights and experiences, while providing cultural guidance for working on Sea Country in an engaging and effective way. We hope the research community find this video useful and inspiring.

Above: Screenshot of the latest video released to inform visitors on cultural etiquette when visiting the Kuuku Ya’u country.

© Commonwealth of Australia.

Bottom: Reef life at John Brewer Reef. © Victor Huertas

Watch this Space! Science and Knowledge Needs for Management document coming soon

The Authority is currently updating its priority science needs guidance document, with its release anticipated in mid-2021. We update this every ~4 years following release of Outlook Reports, to communicate priority information gaps needed to improve management, protection and reporting. The document will also provide guidance on how to collaborate with us, and what we can bring to a partnership, if you want your research to deliver an applied management outcome for the Reef.

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Book Review

“Letters and diaries: Expedition to the Great Barrier Reef 1928-1929” by Sidnie Manton

Book review by A/Prof. Sarah Hamylton

ACRS President “History’s not such a frolic for women as it is for men. Why should it be? They never get around the conference table. In 1919, for instance, they just arranged the flowers, then gracefully retired…. What is history? History is women following behind with the bucket. And I'm not asking you to espouse this point of view, but the occasional nod in its direction can do you no harm.”

- The History Boys, Alan Bennett

T

he 1928-29 Expedition to the Great Barrier Reef had a profound effect on modern coral reef science. A group of British and Australian scientists based themselves for just over 12 months at Low Isles on the northern Great Barrier Reef. Here, they undertook the most thorough field observations and experiments ever taken at a reef locality, significantly advancing our understanding of corals, particularly their nutrition, growth, reproduction, how they respond to elevated temperatures, and how they form distinctive, zoned patterns across reefs. This book compiles Sidnie Manton’s letters home and diary entries, written during the time she spent as a member of the Expedition, and posthumously transcribed almost a century later by her daughter and granddaughter.

intelligent things they’re at is astonishing, and a little overpowering at first when you plunge into the middle of it armed with abysmal ignorance. They work jolly hard too…”. One can imagine Manton rolling up her sleeves, looking for an opportunity to get stuck in as soon as her feet touched the sand. It didn’t take long for that opportunity to arise.

Working as a member of the shore party led by Thomas (Alan) Stephenson, Sidnie Manton carried out quantitative ecological surveys along three major traverses across the reef flat, continuing one down to a depth of approximately 5 m underwater with the help of a dive helmet. She examined the reef surface through a rectangular Twenty-six year old Manton from the wooden frame measuring 0.9 x 1.8 Department of Zoology at Cambridge m. This frame was subdivided into University joined the Expedition on Low smaller squares, inside each of Isles for four months as part of a trip that which she counted and measured saw her away from home for nine months corals colonies. For the first time, in total. She travelled alone, mostly by Manton’s measurements enabled the ocean liner and train. Manton spent five zonation patterns of corals to be weeks in Tasmania collecting the better understood, both relative to Anaspides mountain shrimp before her water levels and more broadly across visit to the reef, returning to England reef platforms. Working alongside through Bali, Java and Sumatra. This is a others, Manton helped to produce Clifford, E.; Clifford. J. (eds.), 2020. Sidnie Manton’s formidable trip for anybody to have taken several large scale, exceptionally Letters and Diaries: Expedition to the Great Barrier Reef 1928-1929. 301 pages (available in paperback alone, particularly a relatively young detailed maps of different reef and e-book). woman in the 1920s. It is no surprise habitats, featuring prominent therefore, that Manton is described by her landforms of the Low Isles complex, family as “a woman of great determination and academic including two shingle ridges on the windward side of the brilliance”. Both of these qualities shine through this reef; a small sand cay on the leeward side of the reef and an account of what is now widely viewed as a legendary extensive reef-top flat, part of which is occupied by historical coral reef science expedition.

mangroves. Manton was in no doubt as to the value of this work, noting that nobody had ever made such a handsome, As Manton arrived on Low Isles at the end of March 1929, detailed section of a reef edge before. The long cartographic she observed “The amount they’ve done and the bright and record at Low Isles has provided a baseline that scientists

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have returned to re-survey 90 years later, evaluating changes to both reef top landforms including sand cays and mangrove forests, as well as finer scale ecological changes in the coral reef communities.

The work would have been physically gruelling, particularly carrying the frame, pencils, bucket, hammer and samples across the reef flat, moat, boulder tract, beaches, outer rampart and the seaward reef slopes. The familiar feeling of being overloaded and uncoordinated while working underwater is entertainingly described by Manton, who accompanies her text with a sketch of herself surveying underwater, struggling to carry all of her equipment while wearing the heavy dive helmet, tethered to the boat:

“I set out in the flattie with diving helmet – 2 square yard frame with weights at the corners- pail full of hammer, chisel, slates, pencils, opal glass sheets, big water telescope…once down there I floundered about and managed to find the upper edge of the coral zone where the traverse had been left… I staggered back to where I started and hauled along the frame and planted it over the line- lurching accidentally into the most spinuous bush of coral I’ve ever met. Swarms of fish of every hue came around to see the fun, I got out a piece of opal glass to write down the contents of the first square yardmy pencil tied to my belt I just could not find (you can’t look down at your middle in a helmet), finally I saw it floating under my chin in the water surface inside the helmet!... I had great difficulty in manipulating the frame once, and just as I was getting put- slowly and surely my feet left the bottom and I became suspended in space- I cursed and swore inside the helmet, quite powerless” Sidnie Manton, pages 91-92)

On a short trip to nearby Escape Reef, she slept alongside two other junior researchers on the hatch roof of their boat.

They lashed a groundsheet over the three of them to keep them from falling off as the boat rolled. Of what sounds like a harrowing night, she simply writes ‘slept partially’. Such characteristic understatement of expedition hardship throughout reminds us that the account was written just a decade after World War I. This was a time before James Cook University and many of the contemporary bastions of Australian coral reef science existed. As with any historic account, the diaries are an informative record of the relationship that the scientists, and people more generally, had with coral reefs at the time. The habit of Expedition members to walk about the reef flat with a rock hammer in hand, chipping away at the bits that looked interesting, comes as a surprise to the modern, conservation-minded, reader.

Descriptions of their days at Low Isles likely resonate with the experience of anyone who has worked in the field. The cast of characters (described candidly in diary entries that Manton did not intend to publish) includes a lazy companion who didn’t pull their weight, someone with a budding abscess on their leg and a boatman struggling with a troublesome outboard engine. All very familiar. What is striking about Manton’s account is that she rarely seems to

stop, waking before sunrise to work sections of a traverse in the right tidal conditions and mapping on days when the sea was rough. Manton’s detailed study of Pocillopora coral growth revealed how coral colonies develop and form after settlement, while their group’s observations were the first published account of the lunar periodicity of coral spawning, with larvae being released on the new and full moons. The diary entries allow the reader to connect the daily grind of collecting, maintaining, labelling and cataloguing corals, endlessly developing the photographic negatives with the excitement of genuine scientific discovery, which makes it an inspiring read for young scientists.

Perhaps one of the most important contributions made by this book is its subversion of the conspicuous absence of women from much of the global history of coral reef science.

The Expedition was organised through the Great Barrier Reef Committee. In the opening chapter of Dorothy Hill’s historical account of the dealings of this committee, we learn Sir Matthew Nathan was elected Chairman and that they held their first meeting in Brisbane on 12 September 1928.

Miss H.F. Todd was appointed to the position of Assistant Secretary, in which she was allowed to take notes, subject to receiving permission from G.H. Knibbs, Director of the Queensland Office of the Institute of Science and Industry.

The permission was duly received and, in the decades that followed, the notes were characteristically penned by women, saying little about women.

The Expedition was described as ahead of its time for including so many women in its research party and a “catalyst for greater involvement of women in scientific research in Australia”. Six of the 18 scientists who took part were women, three were the wives of the Expedition Leader, Second in command and Leader of the shore party respectively. They were genuine collaborators in the scientific activities, contributing much more than might be assumed from the available records. In the seven published volumes of Scientific Reports of the Great Barrier Reef Expedition, 1928-1929, thirteen out of sixty three papers included a female co-author. Much of the women’s labour was overlooked and rarely was their work acknowledged.

The publication of these diaries and letters reflects both an appreciation for the legacy of the Expedition and the changing cultural attitudes toward what is valued in the massive endeavour we call “science”.

There is tension among the ranks and a collective jostle over who gets to go on an exciting jaunt to nearby Lizard Islands.

Manton uses grant money to haggle herself on board the coastal mail boat, displaying at once the nose for adventure and tenacity that would support her to become a legendary zoologist in her later career. The account serves as readable appreciation of the joys of life in the field. Manton continually remarks on her health, ‘never have I flourished so exceedingly as here’ and describes a trip to the outer reef as the best day of her life. Collectively, these letters and diaries build a picture of a hardworking, driven group of people whose brilliant minds would set the coral reef research agenda for the decades that followed. At a time when coral reef scientists could benefit from an inspiring tale, this account is an entertaining and enjoyable must.

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Marine art during Covid-19

W

ith many field trips cancelled, our houses became our offices – so art became a release for many marine scientists.

We are thrilled to share with you a variety of marine art submissions following the Society’s call post lockdown.

From water colour, to acrylic; from stained glass to recycled posters as nifty totes – there was no barrier to creativity. Art allowed people to stay connected to the ocean, release some tension and in some cases begin online businesses.

The hashtag #marineart, while previously dominated by nautical paintings, saw an influx of mixed medium, ocean-themed art during the lockdown period in Australia. Research has indicated that artistic activities can yield significantly greater stress reduction in university students than matched non-artistic stress reduction activities (Abbott et al. 2013). So pick up your paintbrush, and unleash your creative inner self, it may just help you get through life and that next academic task.

By Jessica Hoey

By Jessica Hoey

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By Elise Easterling

By Ywee Chieh

By Neisha Rigden

THE AUSTRALIAN CORAL REEF SOCIETY

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By Kyler Rowson

By Shawna Foo

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By Kennedy Wolfe

By Chris Cooney THE AUSTRALIAN CORAL REEF SOCIETY

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By Catheline Froehlich

By Krisanne Baker

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By Ramona Brunner

By Miin Chua

THE AUSTRALIAN CORAL REEF SOCIETY

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CORAL REEFS

PETER F. SALE

MAJESTIC REALMS UNDER THE SEA

By Dr. Peter F. Sale

M AJES TIC REAL M S UNDER THE SEA

Colorful, exotic, of immense value to humanity, and disappearing rapidly because of our mismanagement of the planet -- we are deluged daily by evocative photos and videos of coral reefs, and most everyone knows their story. But most of us don’t really give a damn – most of us have never seen a reef, and the plight of coral reefs is simply another just-so nature story. With a lifetime enmeshed in coral reef science, Peter Sale has witnessed their scintillating splendor and he does care what happens to them. He also sees their tragedy as an early sign of the wider environmental crisis we’ve built through our selfish disregard for Nature. In this book, Sale takes the reader on a journey to make reefs real, building a sense of awe and wonder that they exist, and a commitment to caring about their plight. Together we explore why the reef story has had so little impact and we reframe the enormous challenge humanity faces as a noble venture to steer the planet into safe waters, waters that might even retain some coral reefs.

CORAL REEFS

Excerpt from the Preface:

Since 2011, I’ve reached the conclusion that patiently explaining the cost of continuing our present patterns of behavior is just not working to get us to move. Like deer in the headlights, we stand, and we wait, and we watch, and then we take token steps or continue as before.

And so, I turn to stories from a coral reef. Because I believe that, if we can reconnect with the natural world, then maybe we can come to actually appreciate, in a visceral way, that our civilization cannot survive on this glorious rocky planet hurtling through the universe if we go on as we have been. We must take care to preserve the capacity of ecological systems to sustain their integrity and resilience.

The biosphere is not simply here, one fact about our world; the biosphere makes it possible for us to be here, and reefs are sublime portions of the biosphere. In fact, reefs are so sublime, fascinating, and marvellous they make connection easy. But first we need the stories. I believe the wonder that reefs can inspire can lift our spirits and drive the reforms that we must make.

Just possibly, reefs might help us act sufficiently fast to save them too.

Excerpt from Chapter 1:

A coral reef is fundamentally improbable. By any reasonable measure, coral reefs should not exist, and yet they do. Earth’s oceans have been enriched by flourishing coral reefs over most of the last half billion years; by their existence, reefs testify to the resilient fecundity of life, its proliferating diversity, and its seemingly limitless capacity to endure even as the world changes.

Particularly now, when the full extent of our human-caused global environmental crisis is becoming clear, the long-term success of coral reefs should inspire us, providing the strength and determination to mend our ways and steer our planet towards a better future. And yet that success does not inspire. Because we do not know reefs. We only know of them, and most of us scarcely know that.

A snorkeler swims over a massive Porites bommie at Wilson Island, southern Great Barrier Reef.

© Victor Huertas/Queensland Parks & Wildlife Service

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Coral Reefs, Majestic Realms under the Sea

Peter F. Sale

288 pages (25 b/w illustrations)

Yale University Press

Buy it at Yale University Press

Buy it at amazon.com.au

Dr. Peter F. Sale is an aquatic environmental scientist. As a graduate student at University of Toronto, he studied the threatened Aurora Trout in remote lakes in the Temagami region in 1962 and 1963. He then gained a Ph.D. at the University of Hawaii, commencing a lifetime of research into ecology of coral reefs, tropical coastal management, and ecology of fishes, which spanned a career at the University of Sydney, (1968-87), University of New Hampshire (1988-93), University of Windsor (1994-2006), and most recently United Nations University’s Institute for Water, Environment and Health (2007-2014). He remains Distinguished University Professor (Emeritus) at the University of Windsor, and has lived with his wife Donna in the Muskoka region of Ontario since 2006, continuing to write and speak on critical environmental issues. His 2011 book, Our Dying Planet, told the story of our impacts on the environment from the perspective of an ecologist who has seen environmental decline with his own eyes; his new book with Yale UP, Coral Reefs: Majestic Realms Under the Sea aspires to reveal the sheer wondrousness of these ecosystems.

The 2020-21 ACRS Council

A/Prof. Sarah Hamylton

Prof. David Suggett

Dr. Anna Scott

Dr. Stephanie Gardner

Dr. Stephanie Duce

University of Wollongong

Univ. of Technology Sydney

Southern Cross University

University of New South Wales

James Cook University

President

Vice-President

Past President & Reef Matters seminars coordinator

Secretary

Treasurer

Dr. Samantha Goyen

Jessica Hoey

Victor Huertas

Brett Lewis

Dr. Kennedy Wolfe

Univ. of Technology Sydney

GBRMPA

James Cook University

Queensland Univ. of Technology

University of Queensland

Membership Manager

Reef in Review Editor & Social Media Team

Reef in Review Team

Reef in Review Team

Reef Matters seminars coordinator & Reef in Review Team

Dr. Coulson Lantz

Prof. Graeme Cumming

Catheline Froehlich

Prof. Andrew Hoey

Dr. Gerard Ricardo

University of New South Wales

James Cook University

University of Wollongong

James Cook University

AIMS

Website Manager & Reef in Review Team

Councillor

Councillor

Councillor

Social Media Team

Dr. Chris Roelfsema

Dr. Carrie Sims

Dr. Gergely Torda

Dr. Selina Ward

University of Queensland

University of Queensland

James Cook University

University of Queensland

Councillor

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Councillor

Councillor

THE AUSTRALIAN CORAL REEF SOCIETY

55

Goby on a coral.

© Ed Roberts

2013 ACRS Photo Competition

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© Grant Thomas/Coral Reef Image Bank